Snowflakes in Hell

Bryan Miller has an editorial going on NJ voices. I’d pick out a quote, but the whole thing really must be read, because it’s a continuous several pages of pants shitting hysterics. I decided to put int he comments:

Wow Bryan. That was the longest hysterical rant I’ve read in a while. I normally won’t touch Anheiser-Busch’s products, because, let’s face it: it’s not good beer. But your post has made me decide maybe I should get a six pack of Bud, if Anheiser-Busch they are so dedicated about protecting my constitutional rights from people like you.

You guys really need to come up with some original arguments. You’re still pushing crap about the 50 caliber rifle being able to destroy things like rail cars, when Sr Vice President of Trinity Trail Group said:

“The assertions put forth about the threat to rail from fifty caliber rifles have no basis in reality. We exhaustively test our chemical rail car designs against all types of firearms, including fifty caliber. In almost all tests the bullet simply bounced off. The worst-case scenario we could demonstrate was a tiny leak equivalent to a hand-valve that wasn’t completely closed. Leaks of that scale happen every day all across America.”

The type of armor piercing incendiary ammunition that would light anything on fire is not available to the civilian market. Regular ammunition is not generally capable of lighting fires. The 50 BMG is not an explosive round. It’s not much different, ballistically, from other big game hunting rounds of similar caliber.

But the rifles that fire the BMG look scary, don’t they. And with many people in New Jersey having absolutely no familiarity with firearms, it sure does make them easy targets for the kind of disinformation your organization likes to push, doesn’t it?

Bryan Miller is also executive director of CeaseFire PA, because it wasn’t enough to destroy everyone’s second amendment rights in New Jersey. Now he has to do it in my state too. Fortunately, unlike New Jersey, we have a very clearly worded right to bear arms provision in our state constitution, and an active shooter community. He will not find his ideas so receptive on this side of the Delaware.

Go register and leave a comment.  Be polite, and factual.  We can’t let these folks misleading of the public go unanswered.

A lot of other people have linked Rob’s great suggestions for Paul.  I will too.   It’s deserving of a high google rank.

I’ve arrived in Northern Virginia.  Spent the better part of the day getting my car fixed.  Had to take a day off work, unfortunately, once I realized it was going to be a while.  Bitter is entertaining some folks from work this weekend, and David Hardy is in town, so we’re going to try to meet up with him.

But you know, I’m here pretty much every other weekend.  Any of you Brady folks visiting today ever want to get together for a drink, since you guys are DC based, and all, just leave a comment.  I’ll even meet you in The District, which is sadly much less safe than Fairfax County, but you don’t have to worry about sitting next to a bunch of strapped gun bloggers :)  We’re the kind of people who obey gun control laws, you know.

Go away from the computer for a few hours and suddenly we’re Brady Blog commenter central.  All we’re missing is Kelli~!  You’re all welcome here, of course, even Macca and Kelli.

I guess they got tired of all us gun folks using their bandwidth.   I figured something was going to give when I saw that some of you were talking about reloading (for those of you coming from the Brady Campaign, that means making your own cartridges) in their blog comments.

We wish the Brady’s the best of luck with their new and improved blog, that no one will read now.

There seems to be some disagreement over the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision that the first amendment doesn’t apply to homeowners associations. I have no love of homeowners associations. I went out of my way to avoid them when I was buying my home. Why so many homeowners buy homes that force them to enter into contracts to limit the use of their property, I will never understand.

But should they be treated as governments? With all the constitutional limitations imposed as a matter of course? I’m not too sure about that. I don’t see any reason why homeowners shouldn’t be able to enter into contracts with other homeowners over what they can and can’t do with their property. I don’t even have a problem with the owners entering into a contract that specifies that they will follow any rules that the homeowner association passes, even though at that point, the association would be indistinguishable from a government.

If people want to preserve their constitutional rights, and their right to property, there’s an easy solution: tell your potential neighbors who demand you enter into an association contract that they can go to hell, and find yourself a better neighborhood. Otherwise, you decided that having your dream house was more important than your freedom. That should be a choice you’re allowed to make. But I won’t have too much sympathy for folks who complain about it later.

Ed Rendell isn’t happy he’s getting screwed on putting toll booths every 30 miles along I-80.

Mr. Rendell said he “was shocked and disappointed” to learn of the congressional action, which is not yet final. He will urge Democrats in Congress to remove the ban on federal funds for I-80, but he said that may not happen until October.

Meanwhile, he added, “we can’t afford to wait” to find a way to generate nearly $1 billion a year in new funding for fixing roads and bridges and aiding deficit-ridden mass transit agencies, including the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

Ed can’t wait to get his hands on more of your money!  But wait, he has a plan B:

Within 30 days he plans to ask private companies to offer bids on how much they would pay to run the Pennsylvania Turnpike for up to 99 years. He thinks such a lease could generate up to $1.7 billion a year for 10 years — considerably more than would be obtained under House Bill 1590.

Lawmakers have resisted the turnpike leasing plan in the past.  I may actually not be opposed to it if someone can show me a good plan, and tell me how we’re going to get tolls, which generate 400 million a year in profit now, to generate 1.7 billion a year in profit, without massive toll increases.   I am not as concerned as our legislators about foreigners in the toll booths.   Foreigners work cheap!   You don’t have to speak English well to calculate change!

Either way, this was a great move by the Pennsylvania GOP.  Rendell burned a lot of political capital with that furlough of state workers, and it looks like they inked the deal to end the standoff, knowing full well they could block it at the federal level.   Normally I’d call this kind of stuff sleazy, but furloughing state workers to get your way is pretty sleazy too.

The Senate said no to the smoking ban the house passed a few weeks ago.  Ed Rendell and the Democrats want it badly, the Republican controlled senate wants a weaker one.  There is some hope for Keystone State smokers:

The House ban required a stricter, more limited list of exceptions than legislation recently approved by the Senate.

Senate legislation allowed smoking at a quarter of casino gambling floors, bars where food is less than one-fifth of the gross sales, addiction treatment centers, nursing homes and other adult-care centers.

The hope is they won’t be able to work out a deal.  I’m not so optimistic.   Daine Phillips, of the American Cancer Society says:

“I believe nonsmokers have their rights, too,” Beranek said. “It’s a stinky, filthy, expensive habit.”

Nonsmokers have a right to go somewhere else that caters to their preferences.  They have a right to persuade property owners to ban smoking on their property.   Ms. Phillips, I am not, nor have I ever been a smoker, but crapping on people’s freedoms and liberties of free association and property rights, is a filthy expensive habit, that you really ought to break yourself of.

My mother died of Breast Cancer when I was twenty.   But I shall not give another dime to ACS as long as they keep pushing for these smoking bans.  Freedom is more important.

If you think Maryland will just be harassing criminals with this new initiative, you’re nuts.

Leading officials from Maryland, the District and Prince George’s County will announce a set of initiatives today aimed at cracking down on gun trafficking, tightening laws that govern firearms use and improving information-sharing among law enforcement agencies.

The effort will focus on stepping up inspections at firearms shops, increasing the number of sting operations at gun shows and ensuring that people on parole or probation sign notices acknowledging that they are prohibited from owning firearms, authorities said.

Ah, the old “targeting gun shows” routine.   Where have we seen that before?  Of course, we know criminals don’t target gun shows themselves, so this is going to be another case of authorities harassing legal gun buyers.

I’d also like to know how that signed piece of paper is going to keep the criminal from obtaining a gun and shooting someone.  I’m pretty sure that criminals really don’t care whether they are prohibited from owning a gun or not.   But hey, at least they are doing something, right?

Congress is moving to restrict tolling on I-80, which was the centerpiece of Rendell’s deal to fund transportation in Pennsylvania.  For once, folks, Congress does something useful!

“The amount of federal money transferred from the state motor license fund to mass transit funds in Pennsylvania is unprecedented compared to the rest of the country, further underscoring the inequity in the state government’s transportation agencies,” said Peterson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. His congressional district has numerous counties through which I-80 passes.

I don’t doubt that the amount of money is very high.  SEPTA, as an agency, is a total cluster fsck.  They put the M in mismanagement.   So now it looks as if there’s a good chance the feds are going to say no to tolling I-80.  Any day that starts with Ed Rendell getting screwed is a good day in my book!

Showing that the smaller papers are more prone to avoid the pants shitting hysterics of the big city papers, The Rock Hill South Carolina Herald manages to produce a pretty balanced article:

Take a drive along Cherry Road, and you’ll see David’s Pawn Shop advertising the weapons on its marquee, “AK-47s Now In Stock.” Owner David Dresner said he started selling the Romanian-made weapon recently, and it’s been a big hit with collectors and for those taking target practice. Some individuals also use the guns for hunting, he said.

But I thought they didn’t have a legitimate sporting purpose?

Dresner said the AK-47 he sells is a semi-automatic rifle just like the ones used by Iraqi police allied with U.S. troops in the Middle East. It looks similar to the famed Russian AK-47, a fully automatic machine gun made popular during the Cold War. Those guns, however, are only sold to individuals specially licensed by the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, he said. And they carry a $25,000 price tag.

Good to see this mentioned. I doubt the Iraqi police are using semi-autos, but they appear to get the distinction.

“AK-47s should not be available for sale. There’s really no argument,” said Zach Ragbourn, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign, the nation’s leading gun-control lobby. “They’re designed to attack people, period. They’re not for hunting or a fun collector’s item.”

Well, it wouldn’t be a “balanced” article if it didn’t get a few Brady mis-characterizations in there. Designed to attack people? I’ve spent a lot of time with my AK-47, and it’s never once tried to attack me. Maybe there’s something wrong with it.

But not fun? Zach, Zach, Zach. I know you’ve commented on here once or twice, and I know you guys are occasional readers, so I’ll make you an offer: I’ll take you guys out to shoot both my Kalashnikovs, and if you still think it’s not fun, afterward drinks are on me.

Ragbourn said the term “assault weapon” was coined by the gun industry years ago as a marketing tool. He said any weapon capable of firing multiple rounds in a split second shouldn’t be offered on store shelves.

“A 100-round magazine is not a cosmetic feature,” he said. “It’s nothing but a bunch of lead in the air in a short amount of time.”

I’m pretty sure that term was invented by politicians. Assault Rifle was invited by the Germans (Sturmgewehr) in World War II. But what we shoot aren’t, they just look like. I don’t have a 100 round drum magazine. They take too long to load, and then take too long to shoot, because we’re not talking about machine guns here. You knew that right? Of course you did, but you hoped no one else would.

Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center, takes the a look in the gift horse’s mouth, and doesn’t like what he sees. Hey Josh, the Brady Campaign figured out that they could spin this as a victory to their supporters and donors, and were lucky to have the media gobble up the notion like they are wont to do with anything you guys tell them. It even tricked enough gun owners to get the NRA in hot water with its constituents.

But Josh, buddy, seriously… take the spin and go with it. I mean, you wouldn’t want to ruin Paul Helmke’s fundraising efforts by getting the notion out there, among yours and Brady’s donors, that HR2640 wasn’t actually a gun control law, would you? If that’s the case, that means you guys haven’t won a victory in, what is it now? 14 years.

Looks like other towns are violating Pennsylvania’s preemption statute.  Actually, violations of preemtion are all over if you look.  I never pay attention to it.   If one of the local townships wants to try to enforce it on me, I’ll gladly take them to court.